These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.
Inspiration: February 28, 2025
Interesting Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NlqhEeK1iw
I read and write science fiction. I couldn’t tell you how many stories I read include some kind of peaceful confederation of intelligent aliens.
The stories don’t always depict those beings getting along! Even in the most hopeful one, one many of us grew up with, STAR TREK’s United Federation of Planets, there’s all kind of conflict. There’s hatred. Humans hate Klingons; Klingons hate Humans; Vulcans don’t hate Humans, but feel they are infinitely superior to Humans; the Borg are the ultimate form of organic life – to be controlled by technology (kind of like us…) and aren’t technically part of the Federation. There’s bias based on color (Andorians, Orions); gender, (Orion females were the foundation (while appearing male) ; Skreeaa males were too emotional; and (obviously) mental capacity – Vulcans being telepathic, Humans only mildly so); Betazoids; the Cairn; Species 8472; El-Aurian…there are others as well.
Among Humanity, our largest conflicts haven’t been based on any biological difference (though the Nazi believed that anyone who wasn’t blonde with blue eyes was an inferior Human; possibly not even Human at all. Probably I could safely say that the largest conflicts resulted from different philosophies, points of view, or perception of what the Universe should be like or was like.
I’m secretly convinced that I would love aliens to be “just like me”! I’m secretly convinced that aliens will prove that what and who I am indicates some kind of innate superiority. It’s not even a secret that I’m convinced that other people are absolutely certain that the universe, aliens, and other intelligences will turn out to be clones of themselves, and identically mirror their points of view, and philosophy or not even their philosophy, but the TRUTH of the universe…
Most of us UNDERSTAND how unlikely that is; in our brain. It’s just hard to get our emotions to agree with our brains. Without any conscious effort, we find it necessary to firmly believe that we’ve got it all figured our and KNOW what the universe beyond Earth is going to be like. Back to STAR TREK, Gene Roddenberry was convinced that by the time Humanity reached the stars – ostensibly sometime in the 23rd Century – religion would have vanished, mostly because it had vanished from his own life and it would obviously collapse the instant Humanity met non-Humans. To his worldview, this was the only INTELLIGENT, STAR-FARING conclusion.
And yet…religion crept back into STAR TREK, mostly after he passed away.
So, giving the whole idea of a United Federation of Planets a serious thought, a REALLY serious thought…let’s look at one of the more fascinating aliens STAR TREK presented. They were simple, really: the Horta. Creatures who lived in solid rock, passing through it like we pass through air. They were silicon life forms. Since then, we’ve even discovered life on Earth that, while it’s not BASED on silicon, it’s dependent on silicon – the diatoms. “Living diatoms make up a significant portion of the Earth's biomass: they generate about 20 to 50 percent of the oxygen produced on the planet each year, take in over 6.7 billion tons of silicon each year from the waters in which they live, and make up nearly half of the organic material found in the oceans. The shells of dead diatoms can reach as much as a half-mile deep on the ocean floor, and the entire Amazon basin is fertilized annually by 27 million tons of diatom shell dust transported by transatlantic winds from the African Sahara, much of it from the Bodélé Depression, which was once made up of a system of fresh-water lakes.” (From the WIKIPEDIA entry) Discovered in the early 18th Century and finally identified for what they were in the latter part of the same century, they opened a gate for the identification of life forms first discovered in the mid-to-late 17th Century…and published with illustrations in the book Micrographia.
Currently, Humanity is convinced that ALL life in the universe will OBVIOUSLY be multicellular and recognizable to us and that with just a bit of effort, we’ll be able to communicate with them. The we will be able to understand their hopes and dreams and intentions and senses of humor or even what they find offensive – because it will be what WE find offensive…though we’ve somehow managed to understand that we won’t have the same artistic senses. Art and beauty and non-quantifiable aspects of Humanity will be acceptably mysterious. But government? Right and wrong? The importance of certain kinds of math or physics or sciences – well, we are CERTAIN that all of those will not only understandable, but OBVIOUSLY ones we share and a firm foundation on which we can build a comprehensible, mutually beneficial, and enjoyable Federation (as we will all have identical DEMOCRATIC ( = Democratic PARTY) beliefs and sensibilities…because we are expecting that alien civilizations will want to SHARE…
STRANGE assumptions to make as we have absolutely no evidence to back up such a belief…only a “feeling of certainty that we have it figured out”. One might even say it’s become a practically RELIGIOUS doctrine.
And like (some people I’ve heard of and read) religion – supported by absolutely NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER.
Having a conflict implies that we will share enough biology and psychology to have to both WANT…or NOT WANT. Do we dare make such an assumption? Last thought: I’ve long thought that the absolutely worst result of First Contact would be that Interstellar Civilizations WOULD IGNORE US because no one will have absolutely nothing AT ALL in common…
Image: https://c7.alamy.com/comp/RJPJ88/spotted-hyaenas-crocuta-crocuta-and-vultures-on-a-zebra-kill-in-the-masai-mara-kenya-RJPJ88.jpg
The stories don’t always depict those beings getting along! Even in the most hopeful one, one many of us grew up with, STAR TREK’s United Federation of Planets, there’s all kind of conflict. There’s hatred. Humans hate Klingons; Klingons hate Humans; Vulcans don’t hate Humans, but feel they are infinitely superior to Humans; the Borg are the ultimate form of organic life – to be controlled by technology (kind of like us…) and aren’t technically part of the Federation. There’s bias based on color (Andorians, Orions); gender, (Orion females were the foundation (while appearing male) ; Skreeaa males were too emotional; and (obviously) mental capacity – Vulcans being telepathic, Humans only mildly so); Betazoids; the Cairn; Species 8472; El-Aurian…there are others as well.
Among Humanity, our largest conflicts haven’t been based on any biological difference (though the Nazi believed that anyone who wasn’t blonde with blue eyes was an inferior Human; possibly not even Human at all. Probably I could safely say that the largest conflicts resulted from different philosophies, points of view, or perception of what the Universe should be like or was like.
I’m secretly convinced that I would love aliens to be “just like me”! I’m secretly convinced that aliens will prove that what and who I am indicates some kind of innate superiority. It’s not even a secret that I’m convinced that other people are absolutely certain that the universe, aliens, and other intelligences will turn out to be clones of themselves, and identically mirror their points of view, and philosophy or not even their philosophy, but the TRUTH of the universe…
Most of us UNDERSTAND how unlikely that is; in our brain. It’s just hard to get our emotions to agree with our brains. Without any conscious effort, we find it necessary to firmly believe that we’ve got it all figured our and KNOW what the universe beyond Earth is going to be like. Back to STAR TREK, Gene Roddenberry was convinced that by the time Humanity reached the stars – ostensibly sometime in the 23rd Century – religion would have vanished, mostly because it had vanished from his own life and it would obviously collapse the instant Humanity met non-Humans. To his worldview, this was the only INTELLIGENT, STAR-FARING conclusion.
And yet…religion crept back into STAR TREK, mostly after he passed away.
So, giving the whole idea of a United Federation of Planets a serious thought, a REALLY serious thought…let’s look at one of the more fascinating aliens STAR TREK presented. They were simple, really: the Horta. Creatures who lived in solid rock, passing through it like we pass through air. They were silicon life forms. Since then, we’ve even discovered life on Earth that, while it’s not BASED on silicon, it’s dependent on silicon – the diatoms. “Living diatoms make up a significant portion of the Earth's biomass: they generate about 20 to 50 percent of the oxygen produced on the planet each year, take in over 6.7 billion tons of silicon each year from the waters in which they live, and make up nearly half of the organic material found in the oceans. The shells of dead diatoms can reach as much as a half-mile deep on the ocean floor, and the entire Amazon basin is fertilized annually by 27 million tons of diatom shell dust transported by transatlantic winds from the African Sahara, much of it from the Bodélé Depression, which was once made up of a system of fresh-water lakes.” (From the WIKIPEDIA entry) Discovered in the early 18th Century and finally identified for what they were in the latter part of the same century, they opened a gate for the identification of life forms first discovered in the mid-to-late 17th Century…and published with illustrations in the book Micrographia.
Currently, Humanity is convinced that ALL life in the universe will OBVIOUSLY be multicellular and recognizable to us and that with just a bit of effort, we’ll be able to communicate with them. The we will be able to understand their hopes and dreams and intentions and senses of humor or even what they find offensive – because it will be what WE find offensive…though we’ve somehow managed to understand that we won’t have the same artistic senses. Art and beauty and non-quantifiable aspects of Humanity will be acceptably mysterious. But government? Right and wrong? The importance of certain kinds of math or physics or sciences – well, we are CERTAIN that all of those will not only understandable, but OBVIOUSLY ones we share and a firm foundation on which we can build a comprehensible, mutually beneficial, and enjoyable Federation (as we will all have identical DEMOCRATIC ( = Democratic PARTY) beliefs and sensibilities…because we are expecting that alien civilizations will want to SHARE…
STRANGE assumptions to make as we have absolutely no evidence to back up such a belief…only a “feeling of certainty that we have it figured out”. One might even say it’s become a practically RELIGIOUS doctrine.
And like (some people I’ve heard of and read) religion – supported by absolutely NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER.
Having a conflict implies that we will share enough biology and psychology to have to both WANT…or NOT WANT. Do we dare make such an assumption? Last thought: I’ve long thought that the absolutely worst result of First Contact would be that Interstellar Civilizations WOULD IGNORE US because no one will have absolutely nothing AT ALL in common…
Image: https://c7.alamy.com/comp/RJPJ88/spotted-hyaenas-crocuta-crocuta-and-vultures-on-a-zebra-kill-in-the-masai-mara-kenya-RJPJ88.jpg
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